Under Attack

There's no denying the world I'm living in today is different than when I was growing up. Things have changed in ways we never dreamed of back in the 1950s and 60s. And I'm not talking about the things that have been invented. 

The world I grew up in was a safer place. We went sledding on the road in front of our house, and just stood aside if a car happened to come by. We road our bikes on the back roads beyond our house and explored the neighborhood. My mother didn't drive so if she ran out of something we walked up the hill and down the road to the little store which was a forerunner of a mini-market. I walked into town by myself to get books at the library. Our mother didn't need to escort us to the school bus in the morning and meet us when we came home in the afternoon. The thought of locking the school house doors during the day never occurred to anyone. Locking the church doors after the service started was unthinkable. We could do all these things without fear of being molested or endangered.

Today, there is violence and human trafficking everywhere. Although some of these things have always happened, it was not as common and more hidden from sight. I remember being in Lancaster with my parents and seeing a man standing in the shadows with a rack of papers. I asked my mother what he's doing and she quickly told me it's not good and not to look at him. Years later I understood and today that kind of smut is sold on racks in plain sight at checkout counters.

Things of a sexual nature were not spoken of in blunt terms. The word "pregnant" was not used. A woman was "in a family way" or "had something in the oven." Specific terms were not used for sexual body parts. There are no prohibitions today. Everything is discussed openly in great detail and published in print and online for anyone to read or see. Transgender used to be called cross dressing and mostly done in private. Now it's a public issue in the schools.

The news media seems to be hung up on sexual abuse. There's something about it every day in the news. When it becomes a kiss and tell story where someone tells all the sordid details to the public it crosses the line into smut. The article the Lancaster paper printed on an interview with a Mennonite woman smelled strongly of retaliation against her husband and her church. It was thumbing the nose at Mennonites and Christianity. I doubt having all that in print dissolved her bitterness.

I'm not denying that sexual abuse happens and it is definitely sin that needs to be repented of, the abusers helped to change their ways, and the victims helped to find emotional healing. But it seems to me that the news media is stressing the abuse that happens in the church, especially in Catholic church but also in other denominations. It's a spiritual attack by the enemy of our souls trying to smear the name of Christ and discredit Christianity. 

.As the world continues to become more ungodly and pagan, we can expect the attacks on Christians to increase. Ephesians 6:10-18 gives us combat gear we need to fight the battle against the forces of evil. "We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places" (Ephesians 6:12).